M'kay

LM warmup, 8 treadmill miles (1% incline) in 1:03:41, 7:58/mi, & stretching.

Late evening run at the hotel after traveling all day.  Hip was really sore initially and tightness hit for first couple of miles.  Probably my attempts at the pigeon pose...yes I'm desperate enough to try yoga.  Even just running on the treadmill seemed harder than it should have, but running outside in the 90F heat at 8pm was not appealing.  Eventually the hip loosened up and I ratcheted up the pace a bit to end things in the 7:20/mi range.   More stretching afterwards.

LM warmup, 8 treadmill miles in 1:27:51, 10:59/mi, w/ 2 mile warmup (1% incline), 4 miles hill climber (15% incline) w/ 2 x 0.1 run, 6 x 0.15 run, remainder hiking, & 2 mile cooldown (1% incline), 3150+' ascent equivalent.

To give the hip a different stimulus, cranked the incline today and did some "power hiking" with some brief run intervals.  15% incline kicked my butt.  I think I sweated several gallons and my legs were jello by the time the cooldown arrived.  Good workout. 

LM warmup, 8 treadmill miles in 1:03:05, 7:53/mi, w/ 10 x Strides, Incline 1, & stretching.

Treadmill miles are tough.  By the time the run was over, my shirt was soaked and I was a couple of gallons of sweat low. 

LM warmup, 6 miles in 48:47, 8:08/mi & stretching.

Really disliking the treadmill miles, but running in 95+ weather with a heat index well north of 100 just isn't going to happen. 

LM warmup, 6.01 miles in 53:15, 8:52/mi, HR 156 & stretching.

Not wanting all my runs to have been treadmill runs leading up to White River, got out in the 90+F heat and high humidity.  More of a run/walk easy run.  Ran until my HR went way high and then walked.  Wound up running in bursts of 1/4 to 1/2 mile, a little more consistently at the end. 

My very first DNF.  Oh boy.  Despite the travel and sleep deficit, plus the left hip issues lately and feeling crappy at the start, it was really shaping up to be a good race.  Hit the first aid station in 33:32, over a 2 minute improvement from last year, and feeling at least as good.  Unfortunately, about 1/2 mile out of that aid station, I rolled my left ankle pretty severely.  Of course, I didn't quit there.  Oh no, I proceeded to shake it off and ran another 5 or 6 miles at a good clip on a stretch where there's quite a bit of climbing (2900' total) and was keeping a pretty good pace.  Unfortunately, on cresting the climbs, the flats made my ankle pain spike from not great to bad and short decents were even worse.  Backing off the pace didn't help much and before too long I knew I was DNF'ing at Ranger Creek.  Unfortunately, that was 2 more miles, which were slow.  I finished that section in 1:39 versus 1:31 from last year, but that was with a couple of miles of run/walk, so I was definitely on a good pace before the drop.

At Ranger Creek, the only options were to hike back the way I'd come (7.8 miles) or hike down another trail hit later in the race (5.1 miles).  I took option 2 and made my way down the mountain one painful step at a time.  Uli Steidl passed me about a mile from the road, 26 miles into his race.  

Medics put some ice on it until it started turning an ugly red, at which point they said go to the ER.  I did, and some Xray's later, diagnosed as a bad sprain.  Which probably nukes my plans to run Cascade Crest 100 in 4 weeks.  Yeah, a pretty crappy day.